


Balls

by PastaBucket



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Feel-good, Gen, Weirdness, abnegation, balls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-02 18:00:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16310009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastaBucket/pseuds/PastaBucket
Summary: Not those kind of balls.Just lots of balls.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> "Someday, when you are older,  
> you could get hit by a boulder.  
> While you're lying there, screaming 'Come help me, please!',  
> the seagulls - hrmh - poke your knees."  
> \- Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A narrating stranger entrusts the secret of the balls to you.

The sunshine is bathing the day in a brilliant light, filtering down through the tree foilage from the bare summer sky high above, accompanied by the merry twitter of unseen birds. It is at this time of day when you arrive at the cottage, only to find a curious old man waiting for you there, leaning on his crude walking stick with both hands.

He silently raises but a hand from his stick in a lazy greeting. No more of a gesture is necessary.

"I'm the narrator.", he explains. "I'm the one whose ungrateful job it is to guide your first baby steps in this realm."

"I see that you've brought only a ball with you into this realm." How did he know? "That's okay.", he assures you. "One ball is all that is needed. In time, the lands will provide the rest. ...but for now, the Oompa Loompas have gathered another one for you, and put it in that chest over there." He nods to an ornate chest at the opposite corner of the cabin door.

You head on over there, and find another ball. You don't have time to appreciate it right now, so you just pocket it for later, before returning to the old man.

"There you go. You now have two balls, kid. ...but the key to this realm - and also to a happy life - will also lie on how one uses and wields one's balls. Many neglect and squander their balls, but if you take care of your balls, you may achieve great things indeed."

You quietly consider his words.

"Unfortunately the journey to mastering your balls, is a story yet to be written.", the narrator continues. "Who knows what mysteries they're yet to unlock. Keep them close at all times."

"However, beware.", he continues. "Not all balls are as beautiful as your balls. There are things of which we barely speak of. Things barred from this realm. The dark balls. These are ugly things, and must be avoided at all costs."

"If you don't know where to begin, I suggest that you start tomorrow morning by visiting the lovely garden not far from here, to see what else the Oompa Loompas have gathered for you there. During the night these small creatures are busy trimming the garden bushes, and I don't think they'll mind you burrowing a couple from their harvest."

"Well, enough talk from me. You're probably exhausted from your journey, so I reckon that you probably want to get to bed as soon as possible." He slowly makes his exit, before turning to you one last time. "From here on it's up to you, kid. Good luck."

You stand there, watching him leave while casually fondling your new found ball, still wondering about how he knew that you already possessed one.


	2. The Cabin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The layout of your cabin, followed by a sandwich lunch by the lakeside.

Taking your eyes off the old man, you decide to head into the cabin that's been prepared for you.

Stepping inside, you are presented with the main room. Deciding to do a brief survey sweep of your new home, you begin with heading into the sideroom on your left, and find that it's your bedroom. After returning back to the main room again, you find that the side room on the opposite side, is some kind of makeshift storage and lesser study, with a large religious stone statue at the end, no doubt of the deity of these lands.

Your initial inspection now completed, the whole cabin feels permeated with an air of pleasant coziness sheltered from disturbances and distractions. This is clearly your appointed place of safety - a nexus from which to brave and explore the surrounding lands.

Revisiting the main room, you head toward the main table, to find two large books laid out for you there. More interesting, there's also a large map alongside them, covering the surrounding lands. Briefly scanning it, you pick out the major landmarks being the surrounding forest stretching out to the west, a bay to the north leading out to sea to the north west, and a large mountain range to the east. You also find the garden that the narrator mentioned earlier, in the middle of the western forest. Certain that this map would prove quite handy for your upcoming travels, you decide to roll it up and pocket it.

Scanning the pages of the book with blue covers, you quickly learn that it's an encyclopedia on various concepts which will no doubt be relevant to your upcoming exploration. There are sections about the balls, but also about energy and prisms, and various related processes.

While its contents is interesting, your head is currently too weary to really study the material at this evening. You close the cover, and instead put your hand into your pocket and produce the new ball that you retrieved from the chest outside. You place it in the air in front of you with a faint sense of pride, and begin to examine it. Within it, you see water washing about, in a mesmerizing beauty that you will probably never tire of. The book said that each ball has been designated a place within the fabric within this world, and while you don't fully understand how, and you get a faint sense of how and where it would somehow fit neatly. You are happy with this new addition to what will in time no doubt be a huge collection of them.

You didn't come here to play with your balls, though. Sighing with contentment, you pocket your new ball, and decide to head up to the bay lake you saw.

 

You sit down on an old treestump and unpack your lunch sandwich, eating it while staring out across the glistening surface of the small lake. Except for the birds, it's a peaceful and tranquil quiet. This is really all that you could ask for: A place to relax and just feel alive. The promises of creative potential spanning from horizon to horizon.

Biting down on your sandwich again, you still find it weird how the entire world as you know it, has in the end come to completely rely on a set of comparatively small and innocent looking balls. Who knew?

 


	3. The Grasslands

With the sun high in the midday sky, and by following the map you've acquired, you reach the meadow that is The Grasslands, its grassy field somehow magically well-kept and even.

You graze some of the grass and it tastes delicious. Yum-yum...

You're far from alone here, though. You watch as a mythical Hen-cow separates itself into a hen and a cow. You wish you could milk the cow, but you don't have a bucket yet.

 

If it wasn't for your keen eye, it might have passed right by the trampled grass leading through an opening in the tree foliage. With curiousity steering your feet, you soon find yourself in a small glen secluded from the rest of the meadow.

At the far end of it you spot some bushes that seem to contain berries. With unbridled eagerness you almost step right into a slime grub, over whatever they're called, as it's creeping around in the grass. It's really fat, and too revolting to actually touch, but slimes of this small size are still pretty harmless, usually picked off by small animals. It's really only the bigger ones that you have to look out for. You decide to whack it with a flimsy stick until it stops moving. Stupid slime. No human rights for you lot.

The berries turn out to be yellowberries. Not the regular kind, but the special kind. You pick some, but you really have no way of storing them without squishing them into jam, so you just make a mental note of its location, planning to return with a container later on.

 

According to your map, The Grasslands marks the edge of the valley. Further beyond, the terrain begins to gradually rise up into hills and cliffs. You see that there's a mysterious cave there somewhere, but you feel like you've had enough wandering around. Right now you instead just feel like taking a nap, so you turn back and head for bed.

 


	4. The Lake

The planks seem sturdy under your feet as you walk out onto the jetty, and the rowing boat is in mint condition as well. Well then. Time to head out onto the lake.

It takes a while for you to get a hang of the oars, but once you do, the boat picks up speed, and soon you find yourself in the middle of the placid waters, surrounded by green distant shores in your every direction.

Peering over the edge of the boat, you catch a glimpse of a large eel swimming about. Too bad that you haven't brought your fishing gear with you this first time.

You can't quite shake the feeling that there's a higher purpose to this world, that still eludes you.


	5. The Ruins

You slowly approach the crumbled pillars in the middle of the glen, and soon you also notice the partially overgrown stone pavement uniting them into a ruined temple-like structure. The map marking spoke true.

Then your eyes catch something stranger still: A faint red glow emanating from its center. It's coming from deep, deliberate carvings into the stone, the like of which you've never seen. This is probably mentioned in one of those books that you neglected to read earlier.

As curious as this is, it's probably best to read up on things like these before you accidentally hurt yourself. You abandon the site and return to The Grasslands once more.


End file.
